AMAZON is cutting 14,000 jobs in a move that will “inevitably impact many UK workers”.
The tech giant made the announcement on Tuesday morning,
Those affected by the job cuts are believed to be employees across logistics, gaming, payments, and cloud computing teams.
Managers of affected teams are currently undergoing training for how to communicate with staff following notifications that have started going out via email.
Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, made the announcement in a statement on Tuesday morning.
She said the tech giant expects to “continue hiring in key strategic areas while also finding additional places we can remove layers, increase ownership, and realise efficiency gains”.
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‘The world is changing quickly’
She added: “Some may ask why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well.
“Across our businesses, we’re delivering great customer experiences every day, innovating at a rapid rate, and producing strong business results.
“What we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly.
“This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones).
“We’re convicted that we need to be organised more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”
The move is in response to the Seattle-based tech giant overhiring during the pandemic, according to Reuters, which had estimatd 30,000 job losses.
The GMB union, which represents Amszon workers, said, based on those numbers, that “it is almost inevitable that many UK workers will lose their jobs”.
“The fact that companies can accrue such astronomical profits to the point where its [founder, Jeff Bezos] can holiday in space and hire out entire cities for his vulgar wedding prior to casting aside loyal workers without a thought just underlines everything that’s wrong with a system that many feel is beyond repair,” the union said.
Amazon last cut more than 18,000 jobs worldwide in 2023 as part of plans to slash costs.
The group, which employs around 1.5 million people globally, warned in November 2022 that its workers could be laid off.
Following a review of its business, it said it had found roles that needed to be axed.
In January 2023, it announced its biggest ever layoff programme, with just over 18,000 losing their jobs.
As previously reported, Amazon said those across its stores, such as Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, would be the most impacted.
Other tech giants have been slashing staff numbers this year.
In January, employees at Meta blamed artificial intelligence for taking their jobs after 3,600 workers were fired in a shocking cut.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted to cut workers he framed as underachieving from the company.
Zuckerberg announced his plans to cut 5% of his workforce in an internal memo in mid-January.
He said the company “decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster”.
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Zuckerberg said Meta was focusing on developing AI, its smart glasses, and “the future of social media”.
Earlier this year, Microsoft also announced a series of layoffs, with more than 6,000 losing their jobs.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
